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Letter: Congress does nothing, then blames president

By Lee Purrierfrom Park Rapids on Jul 16, 2014 at 11:59 a.m.

With Congress at its lowest approval rating in history, it’s interesting to watch the Tea Party, NRA, and Grover Norquist (the no tax pledge guy) pull the strings of their puppet Congressmen to grind the wheels of government to a standstill and blame President Obama for it. Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell and House majority leader, John Boehner, have unilaterally abused their power by filibuster in the Senate and never bringing significant legislation to a vote in the House. They have yielded their responsibility to lead to the special interests who fuel the never ending re-election campaigns in this money corrupting political age.

Meanwhile, they hold countless, costly inquiries on low level matters and useless votes to repeal established law with intent to embarrass the administration. Benghazi, IRS, NSA, VA incidents, all being investigated and corrected at competent levels below Congress, occupy their agenda in the short periods they actually work while complaining loudly about jobs. At the same time, a comprehensive jobs program, addressing critically needed infra-structure investment languishes on their lap. They offer no alternatives for either addressing the infrastructure or generating jobs. Sad.

What is even more puzzling is why they are expected to win back jobs in this election year. Voter ignorance, complacency, strict adherence to party loyalty and ideology…play their roles, but this abuse is so obvious and damaging to the country and the common good that all voters should be energized to learn more and vote intelligently in this very important election. — Lee Purrier, Park Rapids